


the beauty that she brings

by azurill



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 04:47:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20633324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurill/pseuds/azurill
Summary: At this point, Ellie considers them to be fucking cursed.





	the beauty that she brings

Ellie saw all of it. Her terrified stare directed at the man in front of her – _fuck, hadn't these eyes seen enough already_ – as Dina shoved at his face with her fingers, blunt nails digging at the rough skin of his hands around her neck, the same neck Ellie's peppered kisses all over hours before they went outside. Whatever oxygen left in her lungs was running out real quick and all color seemed to be drained from her face, her attempts at getting enough air coming out as half-choked gasps. She never stood a chance, too distracted with the enemy behind Ellie to see the one behind herself.

With every two steps she took towards Dina, someone would show up in front of her with a weapon or a bullet would bury itself too close to her body for comfort. She was lost in a haze of strange faces, of angry eyes and angry hands wielding anything that could cause harm. But Ellie could do angry, too. She wasn't older than eleven years old when she realized how much anger was useful. How it kept you safe. How fear and hesitation did _not_. She does quick work of the people between her and Dina, except for the man who had a hold on her girl. With him, she takes her sweet time. She brings her knife up and down and up and down again, again, again, the angriness slow to be sated.

Dina crawls towards Ellie, wheezing her way through her words, throat raw and the taste of blood pooling inside her mouth. "Ellie, stop – stop that."

Ellie catches her breath for a few silent seconds before she turns away from the man on the ground, not a wince to be seen on her face at the disgusting sound of the knife turning inside his body when she removes it from between his shoulder blades. Dina doesn't miss the way her hand instantly clutches her side when Ellie helps her stand on her feet again. Ellie follows Dina's gaze as she searches for an injury, dropping a curse when she notices the blood freely leaking through her lilac sweater, right at the curve of her hip. 

It's like that time she was doing stupid shit with Riley back in Boston, climbing over walls and crawling through holes. There was a crooked line of blood on her calf from where it got tangled in the wire and she hadn't even noticed it until Riley said, _hey, Ellie, you're bleeding_. She lets herself be led by Dina without a word, surprised at the pain she couldn't feel before making its way through her body. Ellie sits on the ground of a dusty gas station, leaning her head on the moldy seat in the corner of the room.

Her girlfriend moves the fabric of her sweater away to reveal the wound and it doesn't really look like something that would put her on the brink of death. Who knew, maybe the prayers Dina whispered sometimes were starting to bring results. 

"Okay, I'll –"

"You're trembling," Ellie points out, lays her bloodied hand over Dina's bloodied hand.

Dina chuckles out of nervousness like she always does, voice still strained. "It's not important," she pulls her hair up in a brand new bun after it was reduced to nothing with how much her head was shoved back in the ground. "I can't do this shit without washing my hands."

"We have alcohol."

"Good," Dina perks up. "Good. Better than nothing. Gimme that." Ellie reaches for her backpack and she stops her with a hand on her thigh, shaking her head in frustration. "No, I mean – don't give me that." She reaches for the alcohol on Ellie's backpack herself and spills a good amount of it on her palm, making sure she gets all the hidden spots between her fingers and the knuckles on the back of her hand. "Sorry. I'm gonna clean this, alright?"

"The water," Ellie whispers softly, "Mix it with salt."

"_Salt_?"

"It helps. For now."

Dina trusts her with anything. No exceptions, no questions asked. "How much?"

"A little less than two spoons? The small ones."

"Okay. Good."

"You're saying _good_ a lot."

"Shut up, I'm fucking nervous."

Ellie gives a trembling thumbs up when Dina looks at her wound hesitantly, a huge piece of cotton dripping saline water in her hand. She watches Ellie's face closely as she gets to work, feeling each whimper that leaves her slightly parted lips as if she were the one in pain. Out of all the things Dina has to do from time to time, that's what she hates the most. Having to watch the people she loves gasping and trembling at the same time she has to keep her face neutral enough for no one to question whether she knows what she's doing or not.

She doesn't know how Ellie does it. She is, however, beyond proud when she hears someone compliment Ellie's skills on the mess hall – she has so, so many skills, no matter how many times she denies it – or when someone knocks on their door with food they made, with a figurine made out of wood, with a book as a _thanks _for Ellie having done such a good job. 

Dina dries the wound carefully before she rolls a spare shirt around her hip, tying the fabric with a strong knot on her unmarred side. It's one of her favorite shirts, but she doesn't care one bit that it's going to be all bloody and loose. She should've known better than to think nothing would happen during a ordinary supply run one hour and a half away from the compound. 

"That whole thing with the salt was smart," Dina murmurs, taking the locks of hair out of Ellie's eyes and tucking them behind her ears. "I think."

"Your mom's right when she calls me the smart one."

At the sound of her voice, Dina lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She didn't _break _her. "She's always right. That's what moms do."

"I wouldn't know," she says simply, with no bite or joking to her voice. "We should get back."

"Or we could wait here."

"There could be more of them."

Dina certainly doesn't want to find out if her statement is true, but that doesn't make her feel any happier about it. "You're so fucking stubborn, you know that?"

"I just," Ellie looks up at the ceiling, chewing the inside of her left cheek. "I don't want to to be out here. I want to go home. Let's just – let's just walk, okay? We're not that far."

"God, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park."

"It never is with us, huh?"

It was hard, going back to having a normal life in Jackson after the whole ordeal with the Seraphites and whatnot. Even harder to be hit so often with the fact that wasn't the end of it – that the world was still filled with people that wanted to hurt other people instead of, say, being a decent member of a society that was only starting to stand on its feet again. At this point, Ellie considers them to be fucking cursed.

_

_I'm fine. I'm fine. _

Ellie looks around, trying to calm down her shaking that seems to be getting worse as the minutes go by, reminding herself she recognizes the bed she's in, the view outside the window and the body next to hers, quietly still. Her head is pounding with the kind of headache she gets when she sleeps too much.

_Dina's here. Alive. _

There's a slight trembling on her hand as she reaches out to touch her girlfriend's arm, eyes following the movement of her chest going up and down as she breathes. A strange noise comes from outside and she sucks in a harsh breath, heart beating terribly fast inside her ribcage and a chilling drop of sweat falling on her collarbone.

_Probably a stupid squirrel looking for food outside. Don't wake her up. Don't wake her up._

Ellie reaches for the gun on her bedside table, hands blindly hitting a glass they never returned to the kitchen. The noise of the glass coming in impact with the floor does no wonders to take her out of the aftermath of a nightmare and her left arm feels suddenly numb, the pressure in her chest increasing the more she tries to take the air in. Maybe she'll end up like that stable guy. Twenty-one, perfectly healthy, dead of a heart attack no one saw coming.

She can barely make out the outline of Dina's body, how she reaches out for her half-awake, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Ellie quietly calls out her name, lowering her head on the cradle of Dina's neck when she holds her close to her chest, whispering comforting words on her hair. Ellie can't make out any of them, but she knows what they must be about. Stuff like promising they're safe now, that nobody is going to hurt them. She doesn't believe any of it. Can't. That's what she thought before the world proved her wrong again.

Regardless of her resistance, Dina is patient to calm her fears. She pulls back from the embrace which Ellie still desperately clings to, holding both sides of her face and encouraging her to look around. The town is sleeping peacefully. _Look, Ellie, look. _The grip Ellie has on her forearm is strong enough to make the skin there look almost white, but there are no complaints to be given.

Slowly, slowly but surely, she opens her eyes, previously squeezed shut. She takes long, deep breathes. Her lap is wet with tears and she doesn't remember ever starting to cry. And then the shame settles in, burning hot on the pit of her stomach. It was her fault that Dina couldn't get a good night's sleep despite working her ass off the whole day. That the Seraphites even got to them at all.

"Go back to sleep," Ellie says bluntly, with a frown etched between her eyebrows. _This is not right_, she thinks. 

"Like hell I will."

Dina leans in, giving her all the space she needs to back off before she kisses her slowly – and Ellie welcomes it with a strange kind of eagerness, slipping a hand under her shirt, feeling the shape of _her_ under her hands. How comforting it is to feel her there, alive despite it all. She tries to pull Dina into her lap and her side flares up with pain, almost as if it was begging to be remembered again.

Dina breaks the kiss, lips glinting under the dim light coming from a streetlamp outside. "You're hurt. We really shouldn't – you know."

"Wait, that's not what Morgan meant by bed rest?" Ellie croaks out, still in pain. Although the pleasure of having her so close seems more than tempting, she would hate to pop a stitch or two. Or three, with the way they are. 

"Definitely not," Dina rolls her eyes, manages to make even that look effortlessly endearing. One finger reaches to trace Ellie's cheekbones, eyes staring deep into hers, unafraid. "I love you. I love you so damn much, Ellie."

A crushing weight leaves her body at once, like it was never even there to start with. Ellie cranes her neck to press a kiss to the hand cupping her jawline, a hand that loved her and kept her from bleeding. That killed for her. "I love you too, dumbass."

She gives her one last kiss before swinging her legs out of the bed. "I should make you some tea. Maybe it'll even knock you out."

"Wait, wait, don't go yet," Ellie slips her arm around her waist before she can leave, her head softly hitting the pillows. "Later, please?" she says, an equally affectionate and desperate lift to her voice. "Thank you," Ellie breathes out a few minutes after she settles on the bed. "I love you."

Dina's fingers seep through her hair, free of its usual bun or ponytail – and not for the first time that night, she feels an overflowing peace.

**Author's Note:**

> this almost gave me a rsi AND an aneurysm but this idea kept popping up on my head the whole week and it needed to be written before i went feral™
> 
> i'm insensitive to that kind of stuff but a stabbing is kinda a big deal so i changed the tag from "minor injury" to "injury". ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ title's from a song by a tiny man with a tiny, tiny voice called sufjan stevens. hope you like this! 💖


End file.
